Paul Davenport:
Hello and welcome to What The Tech From Boast AI, where we talk with some of the brilliant minds behind doing exciting initiatives to learn what it takes to tackle technological uncertainty and eventually change the world. Today, I am thrilled to welcome onto the show Tarig Abdellatief, Managing Director of Arctech Accelerate. Based out of Ottawa, Tarig's team sets a national standard for grant proposal writing, business development, and lobbying sector services, representing businesses across software, manufacturing, healthcare, space tech, military, not-for-profit, and virtually any sector driving innovation in Canada today. Tarig utilizes a deep understanding of government programs, policies, and protocols to help founders and entrepreneurs he works with maximize their access to the resources they need for success. He's put this knowledge to work, partnering with Boast and other leaders in the startup ecosystem for a series of recent webinars hosted by Startup Stack, and his team has been an invaluable resource personally and helping me understand what it takes to build a successful startup in Canada.
I am truly so excited to pick Tarig's brain about his journey in the startup space, the role his team has played in helping businesses across Canada achieve growth and what he sees for the future of his organization and startups everywhere. So without further ado, welcome to the show, Tarig.
Tarig Abdellatief:
Thank you, Paul. Thank you for having me.
Paul Davenport:
Awesome. So I know I just gave you a little bit of a background on this guy, but Tarig, I would love to hear it from you. Where are you based and how did you get into the startup scene in the first place?
Tarig Abdellatief:
While we service clients all across Canada, we're actually headquartered out of Ottawa, Ontario. The reason for that is we're also a lobbying company, so it makes a lot more sense for us to be where the decision-makers are. It makes relationship-building a lot more feasible and provides us with a competitive advantage above some of our other competitors. However, we are planning to have a physical presence that's going to be increasing across Canada, so the next physical office will be downtown Toronto in 2025, and then the goal is in 2027, we want to be in downtown Vancouver as well.
Paul Davenport:
Love it. Okay. Now, going back to your passions, I'd love to know a little bit more about just why you're doing what you do at Arctech Accelerate and how you personally got into the space to drive this innovation. I know you're a passionate guy. I know we've talked about some of the programs you like, but I'd love to know why those programs, and again, just why this ecosystem and why today?
Tarig Abdellatief:
Absolutely. So I've always had a fascination when it came to tech and as well as for business. This has started from the age of 12 years old. Believe it or not, I actually started programming at that age. I was playing around with all kinds of software, creating websites, tinkering with computers, taking apart my parents' computers and trying to put them back together. I also was trading a lot of Pokemon cards back in the day when I was 12 years old, so I was a very shrewd businessman at a very early age. But after that, I got older, I studied business at McMaster University. Wasn't quite sure what I wanted to do with that degree. So after school, I worked in business roles for companies across the world, including Canon, American Express, before getting into more operation roles.
Then in 2015, I had a eureka moment where through my various experiences I realized that there's a big gap in the market before when innovation met commercialization. And in Canada, there's thousands of brilliant minds out there with inventions that are disruptive to industries. This can include scientists, researchers, or even a couple of guys in a basement or in a garage somewhere developing some sort of an engine. And turning these inventions into a business, though, and getting them funded is a whole other story. This is where our primary service lies, so we're able to take an idea and turn it into a viable business and also get it funded. So that's why I got into this space and how we started to accelerate in this space as well.
Paul Davenport:
I love that. I'm going to go back to your point about being a 12-year-old technologist. That's really impressive, but the trading Pokemon of it all. I was talking to a founder on the show yesterday and she was actually talking about how she also was very techie and she would nerd out. She was developing, she was doing what we were all doing, I think, in the MySpace era and learning HTML to make things look cool. She also said that being a salesperson was something that was very valuable to her and that a lot of people view that almost as something slimy when you say that you have that sales background. But I almost see a one-to-one with the trading Pokemon and being a little businessman at that stage being something you carry with you throughout your career akin to having your hands in sales, having your hands and actually wheeling and dealing.
Tarig Abdellatief:
Sales is really just an exchange of value. Oftentimes people are in sales roles where they don't even realize it, like a politician is a salesperson. They're selling a message to a population. But really, I think no matter what you are, even if you're in tech and you are developing R&D, to sell your technology to your managers above you, to tell them what you're working on so they can pick that up as a project or to get it funded. I think sales is an important element in whatever you're doing.
Paul Davenport:
Absolutely, and I think another point too is that people forget that sales is about listening and that's how you discover what you want to do sometimes. Or if let's say you have an idea, how are you going to get the business side of that done if you're not listening to your potential customers? So I know you had made that point about that being some of the magic that you guys work over at Arctech Accelerate. Let's talk more about the community. What does this actually look like? Tell me more about the actual business that you guys are helping get over the line.
Tarig Abdellatief:
I'll take a step back and I'm going to talk about some of the verticals and the industries that we're working with. So our passions are very broad, but I describe myself as a builder. It doesn't matter what industry. If it involves innovation and business, I'm in. Most recently, we've had a more particular interest in emerging technologies, things like AI, quantum technologies, space systems, et cetera. However, I'll start off by highlighting you guys. Collaboration with Boast has been great. We've been able to secure millions of dollars for our clients and bring their dreams to reality. So when it comes to collaborations, other than the partnership with Boast, which has been fantastic, we started partnering with the BDC, the aerospace and defense portfolio particularly. We started working with [inaudible 00:06:35] law firm as well.
And another really exciting addition is the Celestial Growth Corporation. Now, this is Canada's only space tech capital pool company that's listed on the TSX Venture Exchange, and basically what we've been doing here is trying to drive investments from around the world due to the Canadian space sector. So these are just a few of the most exciting collaborations that we've been doing to date.
Paul Davenport:
Fantastic, and I'm very intrigued about that and I'd actually love to learn about some of the funding programs for businesses in that sector. We could get into the nitty-gritty about that probably in a separate episode, because we could go very long, but I just love hearing about the wide breadth of industries, but also just emerging industries. These are some hot ones. These aren't just necessarily your run-of-the-mill tech. These are the people really driving that global innovation and you guys are working to make sure that it's happening in Canada. And I think that's really, really cool too because, to your point about our partnership, we started out in Canada. We're a Shred house originally. We're obviously broadening what our offer is and who we want to help out there, but the goal of programs like Shred is to support that innovation above and beyond what you could get elsewhere in a non-dilutive sense or in a sense of just making sure that you don't have to look outside field too far within Canada to capture the resources that you need.
So we love being in business with you guys for that reason. I personally love it because you're exposing us to such cool tech in such cool companies. And again, I'm learning a lot as I go. I didn't know coming from the States how many of these programs existed in Canada, so it's awesome every time we get to chat because I learned something new on that front. Now, about Arctech Accelerate, I'd love to know just the origins. Who dreamt up this community in the first place? What were the original goals? I know you guys are heavy involved in helping businesses capture that funding, but you also do the lobbying services on behalf of those industries as well. Unpack how this all came together.
Tarig Abdellatief:
Okay, thank you for that. So I'm going to have to take the credit on the first question. Our consultancy/accelerator/lobbying firm was my inception, and it was just based on looking at the market and identifying a glaring gap. It felt more like a calling than it did trying to think of a good idea. We identified a real problem that exists and we came in there to try to solve it, and the original goal of the business was to simply win clients funding. That was the original core mission. Since then, our vision, our capacity and the team has obviously grown. We now assist companies not only with winning them funding, but we assist them with their project ideation, creating an implementation plan, their regulatory issues, international export strategies, their strategic partnerships, and quite a bit more. Another really interesting addition is that we've onboarded several senior military personnel that are still active, including majors and colonels. So our capacity to help clients work with defense contractors, including the DND, the Coast Guard, or NATO, it's dramatically increased.
And part of the reason why this has been really difficult for a lot of other companies to unlock is to work with defense contractors, you need to have three buckets of knowledge that overlap. Obviously, you need to have the technical expertise, the engineering expertise, you need to have the lobbying expertise, as well as the proposal creation expertise. So all of those together overlapping is what helps unlock some of these programs, and I think that's why we are able to fill in such a big gap in the market that other companies have had a lot of difficulty with, including organizations that punch way above our weight, including investment banks.
Paul Davenport:
Amazing. I think that's a very unique differentiator for you. I would love to note, could you highlight and even just name some of the government programs too, I think especially in that defense contractor realm, that you guys are very familiar with, that are where you have that expertise and have carved out that unique niche?
Tarig Abdellatief:
Yeah, absolutely. If I'm going to name some programs specific to the defense sector, I'm going to start out by talking about the industrial and technological benefits policy. Obviously, part of Canada's defense procurement strategy. One of the most powerful programs that are underutilized here in Canada. Essentially creates obligations for prime contractors to undertake business activities in Canada equal to the value of the contract they receive, and they are incentivized to work with small and medium-sized businesses, SMBs, which is different than an SM. It's 250 or less FTEs instead of 499. There's also programs like the Innovation for Defense Excellency and Security. There's NATO's DIANA program. Additionally, there's Innovation Solutions Canada testing stream that does have a military stream to it. However, I would say these would be the most flagship programs when it comes for working with the military here in Canada, but there can be others as well.
Paul Davenport:
Thank you for running through that too. I know that on webinars I've made you run through that list before also, so I will absorb it and be able to speak it back to you next time we chat, I promise. But now something a little fun. Now, no one likes to pick their favorite children, or some do, but you're not supposed to. Any favorite projects that you've worked on that you want to maybe highlight or discuss?
Tarig Abdellatief:
Okay, good question, and yes, very difficult question. Talking about your favorite clients, they're all like our children in a way. We want to see them be successful and we want to be part of their growth. But I'll note some of the most exciting recent updates for some of our clients. First one would be a company called Northspace. They're a really exciting space technology company who actually just fired up something called the Hatfield Engine. In less than a year, they have a small team of Canadian engineers that have essentially gone from napkin designs to jump-starting commercial sovereign launches here in Canada, working on Canada's first launch orbital vehicles, so that's beyond exciting. Another really exciting addition is actually one of our clients, Savvy Knowledge and MOVE Improve. This is a client between us and Boast, and we won them a seven-figure contract to work with the government, whereas they didn't think they were going to be fundable before, so I think that's super exciting.
And another two companies, we just recently assisted them win ISCs as well with the federal government, would be Planit Measuring, which is digitizing the built world. There's also a company called [inaudible 00:13:00], creating multitouch screen technologies for enterprise-grade solutions, including rugged military computers, multitouch video walls. Their technology is very complex, so sometimes it's really hard to explain as well, but it could actually be inputted into fighter jets and has been tested with Canadian fighter jets. Quantum computing companies such as Quantum Bridge Tech is another really great client of ours, creating asymmetric and symmetric encryption technologies that are really national security imperative for Canada.
And the last couple that I'll talk about would be a company such as Spacium, which is going to be creating service stations along the Space Superhighway essentially, because the space sector is really starting to ramp up here in Canada. And the final one that I'll highlight is very interesting. They're called GFR90. We're going to be creating wearable kidneys for people that obviously have kidney failure or kidney complications. But these are just a few examples of some of the most innovative companies or some of our most exciting new clients that we've started to work with.
Paul Davenport:
My ears picked up at so many of the names that you mentioned, but also just the projects you're working on.
Tarig Abdellatief:
Super cool stuff.
Paul Davenport:
It's so cool. And again, I immediately, when you had mentioned quantum computing too, I know that there was just a headline around the Ontario government is actually giving a huge infusion to the Waterloo community. I think it's somewhere around like 15 million CAD to boost their prevalence in that space. I'm not going to start a quantum business tomorrow, but I'm happy to hear that the funding is there to support it. If I were to, so for any listeners out there, just got to say, Ontario is where you should be looking maybe.
Tarig Abdellatief:
One last thing I'll mention when it comes to the quantum sector is the scientists coming out of Canada are actually leaders in the quantum space. So that just shows that Canada, while we're a small company relative to the other countries in the world, we're in fact leaders when it comes to this space, which is really exciting, and I really think a proud thing that Canadians should know about.
Paul Davenport:
Absolutely, and that's a thing when you were even running down just the industries and the projects that you were working on, they're nascent, not niche. And I think, again, Canada, they've got their fingers on the pulse in terms of understanding what the real meaningful innovation is going to be and at a global scale too. These are world-changing ideas that you just ran through and they're being developed and cultivated in Canada, so that is fantastic. I love that we have a partner who's on the cutting edge like that. I know we talked a little bit about our partnership, but I'd love to know what goes into finding partners for you and the clients that you work with. Whether that's working with them on strategizing and being like, "Hey, we know a great shred provider," or even just getting elbow to elbow with others in the community at Arctech Accelerate, what does your dream partnership look like?
Tarig Abdellatief:
This is a really interesting question actually, because when it comes to partnerships, and the way we've been getting clients, is basically we demonstrate our value to companies that have a big portfolio of clients that we think could benefit from our services, such as, as I mentioned before, investment banks, VC firms, accelerators and incubators, where we'll present to them and show them the gaps that they're not providing their clients. And after they go through their own due diligence phases, we usually win their portfolios. So the other side of that coin would be when we start working with clients, client referrals is a big part of our business, but we haven't had a need for marketing, which speaks to the need for the service in the market.
And touching a little bit on the collaboration when it comes to Boast, the symbiotic relationship between Arctic Accelerate and Boast has really acted as a catalyst for the tech sector in Canada, because while Boast is able to recoup retroactive expenses for our clients' research and development, Arctech is able to fund future expenses. And additionally, the portion of the grants or contracts now funded by the government become a shred claim. So I think a partnership between Arctech Accelerate and Boast has been quite fitting, and it's been a really organic fit as well.
Paul Davenport:
You took the words out of my mouth when you said organic fit. It only makes sense that we're working with folks like you because we're two sides of the same coin almost. Again, we retroactively help companies recoup what they have spent themselves and invested into their R&D. At the same time, there is money out there if you're working on one of these nascent fields that you had named earlier where innovation is happening, and you're being a real game-changer. So find people who look for those organic partnerships. If you're a startup founder and you're looking to get everything you need to make your idea an actual business, because folks like Tarig will help you get the runway in the first place. We'll help you extend it. And there are different funding mechanisms at the end of the day, and they come from different sources ultimately, but it's all to support that innovation that you're driving, so I love to hear that.
Now, I want to know, broadening it out a little bit, getting a little more abstract. We hear a lot about this current state of startups. Everything you look in the news today is, "Oh, it's tough out there." Especially from I think a VC and private equity side, everyone's doom and gloom right now, but that's not the whole startup world. Could you maybe tell me what is your current take, I guess, on starting a business in the current tech ecosystem, and also maybe any suggestions for founders looking to get going today?
Tarig Abdellatief:
Absolutely. I'll take a more positive spin to this because I know a lot of the news people see a lot of doom and gloom. I think the state of startups in Canada is strong, and how strong it is depends on what you're working on. So some of the most disruptive technologies on the global scale are actually coming out of startups in Canada. Some of these can include clean economic growth, so projects that support the greening of the economy that contribute to emissions reductions or create sustainable and green jobs. Technology companies that are project-led by high-potential firms. This would be in cutting-edge sectors as we discussed previously. Things like AI, life sciences, digital technologies, quantum tech, space tech, cyber resilience. Also, industrial transitions, so projects that support change in traditional sectors, develop new sectors and ensure there's opportunities for years to come in the industrial sectors here in Canada.
And finally, a new one that I'll touch on is innovations or ideas that can help solve the housing crisis here in Canada. These are just some of the areas where if you are working in innovation, there is no shortage of funding here in Canada, and as well as there's no shortage for testing contracts for innovations here in Canada. I'll say that the state of the startups, especially in disruptive technologies that are under these areas, is quite strong. So I'll try to be a little bit brief here because the challenges can be extremely broad as well as the solutions, but some of them include not keeping up with the ever-changing grant and contract landscape. Clients sometimes get laser-focused on their work and they're letting funding opportunities slip through the cracks, so I'd say it's really important to regularly check for programs or work to companies that keep you alerted, such as Arctech or such as Boast. Also, not being sufficiently well-financed to cover matching components of grants or to fund your project until you are reimbursed by the government.
And there are techniques to resolve this, such as working with grant financing companies or even working with Boast that can provide capital in advance through your spread claims. And now another headwind that founders can face is not understanding when their projects become funding ready. So oftentimes, projects have major gaps that aren't shored up prior to applying. Their implementation plans aren't clear, their evaluation or impact measurements are not included in their application, so taking a data-based approach when you're writing programs I think is really important and it helps prevent losing faith in winning grants, because oftentimes it's a small error that you're making, which is the reason why you're not winning funding.
And lastly, I'll talk about just validating your projects with the government departments prior to applying. Sometimes your grant may fit or your project may fit a program perfectly, however, the government may have already funded 10 types of those projects and now they're focusing on something else. So while it does appear that your project does fit the criteria, where applicable, it is important to talk to the government agencies to confirm your work. And I'd say these are just a few of the major themes. Of course, this could be a whole podcast of its own, but I just wanted to provide a few of the most major ones.
Paul Davenport:
I love that. I actually think you just gave me an idea for our third webinar that we're going to do shortly, but I love that you also said take the data-based approach when you were talking about not understanding when projects are ready, for instance. Have a source of truth for these things, but also that point about validating your project with the government. That's not something that I think immediately would've come to mind. I think I had inklings around some of these challenges, but that's a big one that I feel like people should take advantage of sooner than later, because like you had said, the government may already be funding something akin to that. And if you've gone down that road and maybe you could have been working on something that would've provided more of that direct value and still qualified for funding, you missed out, so that is awesome. Tarig, that is fantastic. Is there anything you want to say as a closing remark to everybody before we sign off?
Tarig Abdellatief:
Closing remarks would be that if you are working on an innovation that you feel is unique to the market globally, don't be too focused on how small you are as a company. Because when it comes to high-tech, that's not the most important factor. The most important factor is going to be the merits of your technology. And if your technology does have merits, everything when it comes to your team, to your IP strategy, we can get those resolved for you. So really, I'd say don't count yourself out too early. If your technology is unique to the market and has merit, do seek government funding. And if you don't know how to do that, reach out to Boast or reach out to companies such as Arctech Accelerate and we'd be more than happy to help you.
Paul Davenport:
I love that. I love that. It's all about true innovation, and if you are driving true innovation, there is support out there. We will help you find it. Thank you so much, Tarig. I can't thank you enough for hopping on the show.