TechPoutine #19:The AI Land Grab, the Death of SaaS, and Stay22's $122M Raise

Tech Poutine is back and so is the energy.

The Tech Poutine crew is back for the first episode of the year. Recorded straight from the Startup Fest studio , Eleonore, Ian, Gabriel, and I dive into the rapidly shifting landscape of venture capital and the local tech ecosystem. The market is moving incredibly fast, and we break down the most exciting, and terrifying, trends hitting the industry right now.

• Stay22's Massive Win: We kick things off with a massive shoutout to Andrew and Hamed from Stay22 on their $122 million raise led by Summit Partners. We discuss their incredible grit through multiple near-bankruptcies , how they navigated revenue going to zero during COVID , and the legendary story of Hamed pitching Dave McClure in a taxi.

• Is SaaS Dead? We explore the dramatic shift away from the traditional SaaS playbook. The crew analyzes how public markets are repricing software companies with shrinking multiples , while AI-native foundational models are commanding massive valuations based on incredibly high revenue per head.

• 10x Engineering & The End of Backlogs: AI tools are sending developer productivity through the roof, allowing tiny engineering teams to do the work of much larger traditional teams. We share real-world stories of engineers coding features from their phones while on vacation in Japan and AI product managers automatically generating backlogs by listening to meetings and reading Slack.

Mila Ventures & Canada's Opportunity: Gabriel shares the inside scoop from his new office at Mila, detailing the announcement of Mila Ventures' new fund and the return of a highly entrepreneurial buzz to the ecosystem. We close out with a call for the Canadian ecosystem to abandon its conservative tendencies and move fast to capitalize on this once-in-a-lifetime tech cycle.