Waterloo Tech Highlights for May 2026
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.
Page announced a raise of $4.1M of new equity from Twelve Below, Go Global Ventures and Canaan Partners plus funds from Ripple Ventures and Garage Capital who invested in an earlier round in 2024. Their product acts as an AI lobbyist to monitor and influence governments and they’ll use the funds to expand to the US and UK.
Intellijoint closed their Q1 with a record $5M of revenue and positive EBITDA.
Shinydocs has recently hired a Head of Sales and a CFO to manage continuing growth.
KA Imaging sold their first units to the Canadian Armed Forces supported through their Inovation Solutions Canada program.
Eventist got profiled as a low-cost ticketing platform for events. Started by Ciara Azam, a UW Engineer grad, they offer flat pricing to undercut larger platforms.
Chris’ Thoughts
I’ve interviewed, assessed and hired many people. Like many I look to gauge some specific traits like ability to deal with interruptions, answer awkward questions, explain complex things, show decisiveness and provide a sense of the bounds of their truthfulness. Like everybody, I think I’m an above average judge of character.
Recently two traits have bubbled up that I haven’t consciously looked for but appear consistently among high performance people: communication density and effort estimation.
Communication Density
For some conversations it feels like we cover 100 miles of ground in no time at all. Then there’s others, and for whatever reason after 90 minutes it seems like 80% of the conversation remains unspoken and there’s more questions for next time. While it takes two to really jam, I’ve noticed that some people convey much more useful information in a short amount of time, covering 5x the terrain of an average person. Interestingly comedians and great storytellers often fall in this camp. In work and leadership settings where new AI tools shorten many things, consistently dense and effective communications offers a real productivity boost. I’m still trying to figure out how to screen for it during initial meetings and reference calls, but I think it’s a hidden sign of an effective leader.
Effort Estimation
Riding past Home Depot on Saturday around noon, you can see the line of cars entering and leaving, in what for many will be their second trip of the day, with likely two or three more to come as the weekend project almost inevitably goes from an original four hour estimate to a full two-day slog – if you’re lucky. An expert on YouTube tricks me to believe that this home improvement task I’ve never tried can happen without at least one costly mistake and two unexpected side-quests of encountering another broken thing to also fix.
It’s excusable to under-estimate a task when it’s something I’ve never done before. But what about people who chronically underestimate tasks, or on the other side, people who regularly find ways to get things done in the expected amount of time? In many ways this is the reward/punishment that awaits public company CEOs and CFOs when they report their quarterly numbers relative to the expectations they set 90 days before. Some workers chicken out and avoid promising altogether but I suspect long before somebody hits a senior leadership position there’s an established track record of delivering on set expectations that’s identifiable if I look for it. While some achieve at the expense of burning out teams, when taken in context consistent product delivery can foreshadow a capable leader.
I’m trying to figure out how to ask questions that bring these traits out as well as work on improving them in my own life.
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Chris Wormald @cwormald