Waterloo Tech Highlights for April 2025
Our goal is to provide you with a monthly primer on significant news events from private Waterloo-based technology companies in 5 minutes or less.
Quietest month ever in terms of publishable stories. Lots going on behind the scenes though.
Intellijoint launched its fourth product – Intellijoint VIEW for Knee.
Conelabs got a nice feature story. The infrastructure inspection startup moved to Waterloo from Toronto and has a (for once) positive story of government procurement.
Chris’ Thoughts
Successful entrepreneurship requires some measure of insanity. Peter Thiel pointed that out in one of his books, or that’s the first place I came across the thought. As an investor I’m constantly struggling with the kind of crazy that I can live with in a founder and where to draw the line.
To help stay on track and evaluate the crazy, most investors rate founders on a list of attributes that we believe successful founders need to win. One of the traits we look for is resilience.
Years ago, somebody expressed resilience as who you are when the lemon gets squeezed.
While 40% of Canada has probably spent part of the past couple days sad or angry about our national election outcome and many more reel at the constant sovereignty threats that emerge from those we thought were friends, I’ve seen resilience emerge from disappointment in many circles as discipline kicks in and I-was-made-for-this founders pivot and look for opportunity in the emerging uncomfortable clarity of how Canada will play its hand in the coming years. It always impresses, how some passionate people can lose and bounce right back again. Come to think of it, it’s a trait that Donald Trump possesses that we can learn from.
As a country we’ve been knocked around lately and it’s shown up in many ways. I’m hopeful that we’ll collectively find some resilience and history’s version of events will note how a nation found entrepreneurial resilience and forged a stronger place in the world as a result.
Waterloo Tech Highlights is a communication initiative run by a group of experienced investors and strategists who would like to receive and share real news about the vibrant Waterloo, Ontario tech community.
If you would like to share news with us, or our readers, email info@ironhorseangels.com. If you are interested in continuing to receive Waterloo Tech Highlights, you can subscribe here:
Chris Wormald @cwormald