Brian Glick

There’s too much noise around Toronto’s startup ecosystem. We need to zoom in to actually help founders find more customers and turn into more scale ups. We need more storytelling on a global scale, more publishing, and less of “ecosystem showcase".

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For episode 30 (!!) of #SeeingAroundCorners, Peyman and I recently had the pleasure of interviewing Zain Manji, Co-CEO and Co-Founder at Lazer Technologies, a Toronto-based engineering and design agency specializing in Shopify. Zain shared invaluable insights into the future of commerce, emphasizing the unification of web, retail, and international experiences. Lazer's unique approach, rooted in being "builders at heart" allows them to understand and address the pain points brands face. Having scaled their own multi-million dollar brand on Shopify, they bring a business-first perspective to their work with top brands like SKIMS, October's Very Own, Mattel, Inc., and AG1. We also delved into the role of AI in commerce. Zain highlighted two key applications enhancing the customer journey through chatbots and discovery tools, and boosting internal business efficiency with engineering tools like Copilot and Sidekick. It's all about strategically applying AI to solve the biggest pain points. This discussion is a must-watch for anyone looking to stay ahead in the dynamic world of e-commerce. #Ecommerce #Shopify #AI #RetailTech #DigitalCommerce #FutureOfCommerce #Innovation #BrandBuilding #Engineering #Design #podcast

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I sat down with Sameer Dhar from NiaHealth ahead of his fireside chat at TechTO’s Together Toronto + Rocketships Demo Day next Monday. Sameer is one of those rare founders who brings honesty, humility, and big vision - and he doesn’t hold back. His talk will unpack lessons on: -How Next36 changed his trajectory - from consultant track to tech founder -Building for the masses - and the discipline it takes to stay accessible -Best practices (and hard truths) about building Canadian health tech companies -His 4-year journey to finding the next idea after a successful exit -How he created FOMO and oversubscribed his funding round 🎥 In this short clip, Sameer shares what it’s really like to start again as a second-time founder - and why it can be even harder than the first time. It’s raw, real, and packed with insight. 📍 Don’t miss his fireside hosted by Alex Norman and bring your toughest questions. 🎟️ Tickets are still available here: https://lnkd.in/g-5d2Stu #TechTO #TogetherToronto #Rocketships #HealthTech #FoundersJourney #CanadianTech Cc: Candy Lee, Phoenix Ho, Jason Goldlist, Megha Kandoi, Alexandra Reilly NEXT Canada

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Shopify didn’t just open its catalog for external merchants. It opened it for AI. When I read the announcement, I saw it as a power decision. “We’ve spent decades building the infrastructure that lets businesses thrive, taking raw technological power and turning it into tools for millions of merchants. Now we’re extending that foundation into the AI era. With our new Agentic plan, we're opening Shopify Catalog to brands not using Shopify for their online store.” - Shopify This is a move about AI search visibility and long-term relevance. AI is becoming a new coordination layer above commerce. Platforms can either integrate into it or lose influence over where and how decisions are made. Here’s what it takes for brands to take control of their narrative in agentic commerce: ● Actively maintain agent-ready product catalogs, where every SKU, variant, availability state, and price logic is continuously accurate and machine-readable ● Run dedicated GEO technical audits so AI models can correctly access, interpret, and extract information across their ecosystem ● Design product descriptions and brand assets for multimodal interpretation, combining conversational language with strong visual structure ● Enable safe, end-to-end agentic purchase flows, allowing AI agents to move from personalised conversations to secure transaction completion ● Curate and align their external content footprint, so what AI models read across forums, reviews, PR, and owned content tells a consistent story Our clients are already executing this shift with the Search Bridge platform. If this is becoming a priority for your organisation, we should talk.

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4 Comments

Ever been part of a team that’s "testing everything" but not seeing real progress? I’ve seen it across the board, from the scrappiest startups to Google Canada during our rapid growth years. The energy is there: new campaigns, channel experiments, endless headline tweaks. And yet, growth flatlines. Most teams don’t have a map for how growth actually happens in their business. So they experiment everywhere, hoping something works - activity for activity’s sake. Early in my career, I was taught a better way. A mentor called it the "growth map,” a deceptively simple system for charting every gear in your growth engine, from first touch to revenue. The trick? Your system only runs as fast as its slowest gear. There’s always a bottleneck or a rate limiter. Maybe your leads are stalling in qualification. Maybe your campaigns are getting stuck waiting on data. Maybe engineering can’t keep up with marketer requests. Whatever it is, find that one limiter or bottleneck. Run your next experiment there. When you fix the primary blocker, you unlock compounding progress. And when the limiter moves (it always does - solving one will uncover another), your map adapts and focus shifts. If you’ve never thought about growth in this way, here’s what I tell overwhelmed teams: 1. Draw your growth map from start to finish 2. Identify the slowest gear 3. Run one focused experiment to free it Structured experimentation isn’t less creative, it’s just far more impactful.

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5 Comments