

What The Tech?
Boast AI
How are founders, startups and innovators from across the globe accelerating progress and extending their R&D runway? On What The Tech? we talk with some of the brilliant minds behind new and exciting tech initiatives to learn what it takes to tackle “technological uncertainty” and, eventually, change the world.Brought to you by the R&D tax experts at Boast AI. Boast AI's What The Tech podcast was recently ranked #8 in Feedspot's Top 70 Venture Capital Podcasts on the Web ranking! Listen to What The Tech and other leading podcasts for the latest guidance and startup strategies.
Episodes
Mentioned books

Mar 31, 2026 • 23min
How Nimble Science Is Unlocking the Small Intestine's Secrets
n our latest episode of What the Tech from Boast, we sat down with Sabina Bruehlmann, CEO of Nimble Science, to discuss a truly revolutionary innovation: Accessing the "dark side of the moon" of human health, the small intestine. Sabina's journey started with free computers and straight lines. She became a mechanical engineer in the mid-90s because of a push for women to enter engineering, and because she could "draw really straight lines." But after landing at a biomedical institute, she discovered her true calling: Biomedical engineering, "the ultimate engineering because you have to reverse engineer one of the most complex machines on the planet." Today, at Nimble Science, Sabina and her team have developed the SIMBA™ Capsule, a clinically validated ingestible device that's changing how we understand gut health, food absorption, drug effectiveness, and diagnostics. They're working with Food giants to biopharma companies developing biologics. Boast accelerates the success of innovative businesses globally with software that integrates financial, payroll, and engineering data into a single platform of R&D intelligence. Visit Boast.ai, sign up for our Blog newsletter and follow us on LinkedIn for weekly #InnovatorsLive sessions and the latest news to fuel your growth. Intro and Outro music provided by Dennis Ma whose mixes you can find on Soundcloud at DJ DennyDex.

Mar 24, 2026 • 43min
How Patabid Uses AI to Make Construction Estimating Safer and Smarter
In our latest episode of What the Tech from Boast, we sat down with Melvin Newman, CEO and Co-Founder of Patabid, to discuss how AI is transforming construction estimating and why innovation in this space matters more than most people realize. Melvin's journey is unconventional. He's a mechanical engineer who taught himself neural network development by buying textbooks on natural language processing in 2015, built an AI system that worked so well it "terrified" him, and turned a side project into the #1 unified public tender and electrical estimating software platform in North America. Along the way, he's become a passionate advocate for R&D tax credits, construction innovation, and using AI to amplify human expertise, not replace it. Boast accelerates the success of innovative businesses globally with software that integrates financial, payroll, and engineering data into a single platform of R&D intelligence. Visit Boast.ai, sign up for our Blog newsletter and follow us on LinkedIn for weekly #InnovatorsLive sessions and the latest news to fuel your growth. Intro and Outro music provided by Dennis Ma whose mixes you can find on Soundcloud at DJ DennyDex.

Mar 18, 2026 • 41min
The Burnout Tax: Why R&D Investment Fails Without People Investment
In our latest episode of What the Tech from Boast, we sat down with Dr. Ty McKinney, founder of 8 Bit Cortex, to discuss a topic that's often overlooked in the innovation economy: How burnout silently drains revenue, productivity, and innovation capacity from growing companies. Ty brings a unique lens grounded in neuroscience and a deep understanding of what he calls the "burnout tax,” which is the hidden costs organizations pay when their leadership, operations, and innovation teams aren't working at full capacity. For leadership, that tax shows up as money left on the table when teams can't visualize clear paths to revenue growth. For operations, it manifests as absenteeism and presenteeism that kill productivity. And for innovation teams, it translates directly into delayed product launches, increased bugs, higher churn, and slower ARR scaling. Boast accelerates the success of innovative businesses globally with software that integrates financial, payroll, and engineering data into a single platform of R&D intelligence. Visit Boast.ai, sign up for our Blog newsletter and follow us on LinkedIn for weekly #InnovatorsLive sessions and the latest news to fuel your growth. Intro and Outro music provided by Dennis Ma whose mixes you can find on Soundcloud at DJ DennyDex.

Mar 11, 2026 • 52min
Think Bigger: How AI is Reshaping Staffing, IP Strategy, and R&D Funding for Startups
In our latest episode of What the Tech, we sat down with Anuj Rastogi, Managing Director at Backstretch, to discuss how AI is fundamentally reshaping product development, intellectual property creation, and staffing strategies across Canada's innovation ecosystem. After two decades in the digital agency world, Anuj made a complete pivot into talent acquisition and executive search. He's become a familiar face across Canada's startup community (attending 38 events in 2025 alone), giving him a front-row seat to how AI is changing everything about how companies build products, create defensible IP, and staff their R&D teams; insights that matter deeply to businesses maximizing access to government funding like SR&ED tax credits. Boast accelerates the success of innovative businesses globally with software that integrates financial, payroll, and engineering data into a single platform of R&D intelligence. Visit Boast.ai, sign up for our Blog newsletter and follow us on LinkedIn for weekly #InnovatorsLive sessions and the latest news to fuel your growth. Intro and Outro music provided by Dennis Ma whose mixes you can find on Soundcloud at DJ DennyDex.

Feb 11, 2026 • 25min
From Painful to Unsustainable: How Frugal AI Helps Developers Fix Cloud Cost Before It's Too Late
In the latest episode of What the Tech from Boast, we sat down with Mike Weider, Co-Founder and CEO of Frugal AI, the world's first AI-native application cost engineering platform. Frugal empowers developers to reduce application costs by automatically fixing inefficient code patterns that run up cloud spend—bridging the friction between finance and engineering teams while helping deliver more agile products. We first connected with Mike at SaaS North in Ottawa (where Boast had just celebrated the launch of Budget 2025 and enhanced SR&ED funding). Mike pitched Frugal at the TechTO Rocket Stage, and his perspective immediately stood out: this wasn't just another dev tool—it was a solution to a problem that's gone from painful to unsustainable. Mike brings serious credentials to this mission. He's served as Founder and CEO at three previous venture-backed startups that all went on to major acquisitions. He's an independent board member at numerous businesses and nonprofits (including Invest Ottawa), and an active seed investor. His pattern-recognition across multiple successful exits gives him a unique lens on what problems are worth solving. Boast accelerates the success of innovative businesses globally with software that integrates financial, payroll, and engineering data into a single platform of R&D intelligence. Visit Boast.ai, sign up for our Blog newsletter and follow us on LinkedIn for weekly #InnovatorsLive sessions and the latest news to fuel your growth. Intro and Outro music provided by Dennis Ma whose mixes you can find on Soundcloud at DJ DennyDex.

Feb 3, 2026 • 16min
Beyond the Bright Shiny Objects: How Ollon Helps Teams Build Better
In the latest episode of What the Tech from Boast, we sat down with Chris Ellefson, President and CTO of Ollon, a boutique agency specializing in custom software application development. Ollon works with teams to meet tight deadlines, strengthen their capacity, and rescue abandoned code, seamlessly integrating within organizations to fill skill gaps and extend in-house capabilities. We've been fans of Chris and his team since we first connected in 2024, co-hosting and participating in pitch competitions for innovative businesses across Eastern Canada. Chris has served as a tech lead and mentor at organizations on both sides of the border, and his perspective on building sustainably in Canada's tech ecosystem offers valuable lessons for founders at every stage. Boast accelerates the success of innovative businesses globally with software that integrates financial, payroll, and engineering data into a single platform of R&D intelligence. Visit Boast.ai, sign up for our Blog newsletter and follow us on LinkedIn for weekly #InnovatorsLive sessions and the latest news to fuel your growth. Intro and Outro music provided by Dennis Ma whose mixes you can find on Soundcloud at DJ DennyDex.

Jan 26, 2026 • 25min
Turning Moments Into Memories with Sophie Jiang of MoVA Realities
In the latest episode of What the Tech from Boast, we sat down with Sophie Jiang, CEO and Co-Founder of MoVA Realities, a company on a mission to solve what Sophie calls "the hardest problem in business": turning audiences into champions who carry your story forward. We first connected with Sophie at SaaS North in Ottawa, where she took part in a pitch competition sponsored by Boast and TechTO, and absolutely wowed the crowd. MoVA helps businesses turn their brands into 3D experiences where human connection meets scalable innovation. Built on the science of memory and crafted with the elegance of technology and art, MoVA ensures brand experiences stand out in a world flooded with content, text, and noise. Sophie's journey to founding MoVA is rooted in her architecture background at Princeton, where a cross-disciplinary accelerator program introduced her to the power of AR and VR and changed everything. Boast accelerates the success of innovative businesses globally with software that integrates financial, payroll, and engineering data into a single platform of R&D intelligence. Visit Boast.ai, sign up for our Blog newsletter and follow us on LinkedIn for weekly #InnovatorsLive sessions and the latest news to fuel your growth. Intro and Outro music provided by Dennis Ma whose mixes you can find on Soundcloud at DJ DennyDex.

Jan 19, 2026 • 28min
Building Without the Boys Club: How Athena Collective is Democratizing Entrepreneurial Success for Women
In the latest episode of What the Tech from Boast we sat down with Mikayla Stewart, Co-Founder and CTO of Athena Collective, a platform and community designed to ensure that every female entrepreneur has the resources and tools they need to succeed—regardless of background or bank balance. Mikayla brings a unique background to this mission: she's served as a fractional COO for 12+ stealth-stage startups, turning chaotic early-stage businesses into well-oiled machines. More recently, she's been building custom AI-powered applications that solve operational problems without unnecessary bloat. At Athena Collective, she's channeling all that operational expertise and technical skill into solving a problem that has frustrated her for years: the systematic disadvantage female founders face when building businesses. Boast accelerates the success of innovative businesses globally with software that integrates financial, payroll, and engineering data into a single platform of R&D intelligence. Visit Boast.ai, sign up for our Blog newsletter and follow us on LinkedIn for weekly #InnovatorsLive sessions and the latest news to fuel your growth. Intro and Outro music provided by Dennis Ma whose mixes you can find on Soundcloud at DJ DennyDex.

Jan 12, 2026 • 24min
Turning Conversations Into Action: How Momentum.io Makes Conversational Data Your Competitive Moat
In the latest episode of What the Tech, we sat down with Jonathan Kvarfordt, VP of GTM Strategy at Momentum.io and founder of the GTM AI Academy. With over 15 years in revenue excellence and GTM acceleration, Jonathan has developed an AI GTM data orchestration platform that's fundamentally changing how businesses capture, structure, and activate conversational data. For customers like Zscaler, DemandBase, Ramp, and 1Password, this has translated into productivity gains of 3-10 hours per rep per week. But the real breakthrough isn't just about time savings—it's about unlocking a competitive moat that most companies don't even realize they're sitting on. Boast accelerates the success of innovative businesses globally with software that integrates financial, payroll, and engineering data into a single platform of R&D intelligence. Visit Boast.ai, sign up for our Blog newsletter and follow us on LinkedIn for weekly #InnovatorsLive sessions and the latest news to fuel your growth. Intro and Outro music provided by Dennis Ma whose mixes you can find on Soundcloud at DJ DennyDex.

Jan 5, 2026 • 24min
Beyond the CRM: How Bloks is Building the Ultimate Relationship Management Tool
On the latest episode of What The Tech, we welcome Bloks co-founder and CEO Marc Gingras. We first connected with Marc as part of our activation with the TechTO team at SaaS North in Ottawa back in early November, where Marc took the stage to explain the game-changing innovation behind the Bloks platform. At Bloks, Marc’s team is helping Venture Capital and Private Equity partners rethink their work by eliminating the tedious busywork that’s strife in traditional CRMs and investment workflows, freeing teams up to focus on discovering and nurture the future’s most exciting companies. This is just part of Marc’s journey through the innovation ecosystem, as he’s been a leading entrepreneur in Ottawa and beyond for more than a decade. I’m excited to learn about his path through Canada’s tech ecosystem, the incredible work his team is doing at Bloks, and what’s on deck for 2026. Boast accelerates the success of innovative businesses globally with software that integrates financial, payroll, and engineering data into a single platform of R&D intelligence. Visit Boast.ai, sign up for our Blog newsletter and follow us on LinkedIn for weekly #InnovatorsLive sessions and the latest news to fuel your growth. Intro and Outro music provided by Dennis Ma whose mixes you can find on Soundcloud at DJ DennyDex.


