matt roberts

I wear hats

[matt roberts @mattroberts]

Latest post from me:

Canada is privatizing the only national semiconductor fab it has left and its doing it without a strategy for what comes next.

Link below 👇

[matt roberts @mattroberts]

@jengerson Big respect and congrats on getting it to the finish line.

[Mark McQueen @markrmcqueen]

35 tips for Summer Interns

Repackaging one of my most popular Substack series https://t.co/WjEfV9ztrd

[Jeanne @prompterminal]

Talked to the HR lead at an AI startup in Toronto with something like $100 million in ARR, over $1 billion valuation, a16z lead round etc, but "oh we don't have a research team. We don't do research"

Me: OK.

[matt roberts @mattroberts]

@bwat I don't think this was much of strategy in general. Pretty disappointed on many fronts.

[matt roberts @mattroberts]

“Semiconductors are going to be an important part of the strategy.” Solomon said.

Fun fact it got just one line: "Canada will further enhance and secure its chip design and fabrication capabilities, building on the recent announcement to spin off the National Research Council’s Photonics Fabrication Centre." that's it that the 'important' part

Zero strategy... what a mess....

https://t.co/l9dS9kbUYZ

[Charles Lammam @CharlesLammam]

The federal government boasts that 2025 FDI inflows to 🇨🇦 hit a nominal record since 2007.

But our economy has doubled in size since then.

At 2.9% of GDP, the FDI inflow in 2025 is less than half the 8% in 2007.

Details in my @iedm_montreal report:

https://t.co/XZt95IIakV

[matt roberts @mattroberts]

@tobi I remember when we all watched that and I thought "jesus this is gonna be big. "

[Francis Davidson @FDavidsonT]

Love @LangChain. Allowed us to build super fast.

[Robyn Urback @RobynUrback]

Or, put another, way: immigration was artificially boosting economic performance measures. Interesting that he would admit this!

[matt roberts @mattroberts]

@gregisenberg I'm pretty sure she'd have invested but it was too early 🙃

[matt roberts @mattroberts]

@bwertz @VersionOneVC Congrats - great to see you executing on the vision.

[Boris Wertz @bwertz]

Excited to share that we've closed two new funds at @VersionOneVC: Fund V ($78M) and Opportunities Fund III ($30M).

Our focus remains the same — backing exceptional founders early, often before a category is obvious or crowded.

We're investing globally at pre-seed/seed across AI, robotics, deep tech, biology, decentralized systems, and emerging ecosystems like India and Africa.

The founders we're most drawn to aren't chasing trends — they're mission-driven people with unusual insight solving problems they understand intimately.

Many of the most important companies of the next decade will initially look misunderstood or too early. That's where we want to be.

Thank you to our LPs and community for their continued support. And above all, to the founders who give us the opportunity to be part of their journeys.

[melody @melkuo]

as we see more people become canadian citizens abroad, i will say, i think canadians abroad should pay income taxes to canada too. citizen-based taxation, not residency-based.

the us already does this. if you are a us citizen living outside the us, you still file and pay taxes on any differences in taxes you owe.

the biggest argument is one of fairness. a canadian passport comes with incredible rights: the right to vote, expansive ability to travel and work, and the option to come here at any time and use our healthcare, education, seniors benefits, and other social services.

it's fair to give to receive these benefits. if you don't want to, you can give up your citizenship.

i would like to see any revenues generated by this used towards lowering personal income tax rates at-large. while it wouldn't lower taxes by a large amount, it would be an easy political win nonetheless.

[matt roberts @mattroberts]

@acharoo @MapleVCFund @jedgar @janelee16 Congrats on this - happy to see the success.

[NSF - NASASpaceflight.com @NASASpaceflight]

Blue Origin's New Glenn just blew up at LC-36 while attempting to Static Fire ahead of NG-4.

https://t.co/tANS0dWyIH

[matt roberts @mattroberts]

@sidecarcap Go look at the Mark Leonard of 1996. 2006 it was all done and dusted.

[Lucy Hargreaves @lucyhargreaves4]

for anyone who hasn't been paying attention... C-22 is a terrible idea

C-22's architecture is most similar to laws in place in China, Russia, India and Vietnam

among allied democracies, the closest analog is Australia's TOLA Act (2018), which Australia is now amending due to the economic harm it caused

[matt roberts @mattroberts]

@jgeekseo Find me a measure where it's was unmitigated amazing then because I can't find it.

[matt roberts @mattroberts]

...
I wonder what right track we were on in 2017. Because the following 9 years were an unmitigated disaster for Canada.

[CTV News @CTVNews]

Highest proportion of people since 2017 say Canada is on the right track: poll https://t.co/gbdbVNRgby