Highline Beta

Yes yes!

Most teams don’t fail because they build the wrong solution. They fail because they never truly validated the problem. In this week’s Beyond the Core, we break down how to run problem interviews that surface real behavior, not polite feedback. A few shifts that change everything: Stop asking opinions → start asking for real stories Focus on past behavior → not future intent Look for tension, workarounds, and trade-offs Treat interviews as experiments, not conversations

It was a wonderful two days hosting Canadian Venture Capital & Private Equity Association (CVCA)'s in person finale of their Deal Architect Program. Sara Bentham and Caitlin Williams put attention into every detail to make sure the attendees had a premium experience. Relationships that had formed virtually flourished in person. Thank you for choosing the Highline Hub!

Congratulations to the Dentapreneur Pitch Competition winners! 🥇 1st place Ashish Sharma, Justin Chamberlain, Muntdr Madlol & Soulene Sabir 🥈 2nd place David Wu, James Heitzner & Naumce Trpeski 🥉 3rd place Kenny Kimmins, NIMA NOJAVAN-KHEIRADDIN, & rose jajarmi A little over a week ago we joined together at the Hub to watch the efforts of some incredible builders. This was an inter-disciplinary competition bringing together students across dentistry, engineering and business. It wasn't just the builders enthusiasm that was compelling, it was the quality of their ideas and their camaraderie. A special thanks to our organizers, sponsors, and judges: Dentacloud Claio AI Rebrief, Ishaan Arora, Arshia S., AJ Wipf, Ben Yoskovitz Kevin Zhou, DDS, BMSc John Maggirias, Jaynain Panchal, Elizabeth del Valle, Brian Holland, Karl Schmidt, David M., Ali Aghamohammadi, Liam D'Souza If you're interested in the future of dentistry, please reach out. Please tag anyone else you think should be included here.

In this edition of Beyond the Core, we continue our exploration of the Gen Z problem statements that we identified last week. Using our Starbursting tool we explore the unanswered questions hiding beneath these problem statements, before we get into solutioning.

Excitement is mounting as we are getting closer to announcing the winners of this month's Dentapreneur Pitch Competition at the Highline Hub 👏 10 teams collaborated for 1 month and today we celebrate their accomplishments and are about to see who claims the top prizes 🏆 Thank you to our judges John Maggirias Jaynain Panchal Ben Yoskovitz Elizabeth del Valle Kevin Zhou, DDS, BMSc Brian Holland Karl Schmidt David M. Much appreciation to Claio AI, Dentacloud, Rebrief, Aman Desai and congratulations to the Dentapreneur Pitch Competition team and participants for putting their heart and soul into this.

Another consistent theme in our interviews wasn’t about a specific trend or technology, it was more fundamental. Knowledge. Many leaders spoke about the gap they’re experiencing on the ground. Beyond coins and hype cycles, there’s still limited understanding of what blockchain actually is, how it works, and where it creates real value. That knowledge gap is slowing meaningful progress. In our Future of Finance report, we aimed to bridge this in a few ways. One approach was mapping a timeline of key events across three major horizons — starting with a 10,000-foot view, then exploring each phase in much greater depth. Because before large-scale transformation can happen, clarity has to come first. Read the full Future of Finance: Institutional Realities & the Role of Ethereum report, available via link in comments.

Great opportunity at one of our portfolio companies. Join the team!

Are you solving the right problem? Many teams jump straight to solutions before clearly defining the problem. But the strength of a venture often starts with how well the problem is framed. In this edition of Beyond the Core, follow our team along as they use the Problem Statement Validator tool. You can try out the tool yourself here: https://lnkd.in/eyvcG3gZ.