What's Broken in Canada's Startup Ecosystem

"The whole thing is f*cked. It's really messed up because we haven't spent the time and the attention to build the critical infrastructure across the entire thing."Jesse Wiebe said that on stage in Ottawa last week. He runs the Canadian Startup Capital Association, has invested in over 40 startups, and spent five years scaling Startup TNT into one of the most active early-stage capital programs in the country. He's also one of the few voices arguing publicly that Canada's startup ecosystem isn't broken because there isn't enough capital. It's broken because the capital that exists isn't being activated.In this episode, Jesse joins Caroline von Hirschberg (Spring Activator) and Suzanne Grant (Capital Angel Network) for a candid panel on what's actually broken in Canadian early-stage funding, moderated by Darryl Bandoro of Tech Thursday Ottawa.Along the way: the 5% for Canada framework Jesse is pushing every accredited investor to adopt, why most Canadian fund managers are operating as "first to be second," how government LP money creates perverse incentives for consensus picks, and why a Regina parking company can't get the University of Saskatchewan as a customer but can land UCLA, Stanford, and MIT.This is the audio version of the Tech Thursday Ottawa panel originally recorded May 2026, co-hosted with Deloitte's Technology Fast 50.Read the recap on the Ottawa Tech Newsletter at ottawatechnewsletter.substack.com.Tech Thursday is Canada's largest tech community event series, hosted weekly across Calgary, Winnipeg, Edmonton, and Ottawa.